By Paul Vartan Sookiasian
The Center for Truth and Justice (CFTJ), a U.S.-based human rights nonprofit, addressed a gathering of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, during which it called on member states to refer Azerbaijan to the ICC for a preliminary investigation into war crimes against Armenians.
CFTJ was one of a select few civil society organizations authorized to address the ICC’s annual Assembly of State Parties, the court’s oversight body. Speaking for CFTJ, international negotiation expert Dr. Sarah Babaian stated that the evidence of war crimes by Azerbaijan is “overwhelming and irrefutable.”
“This dictatorship disregards orders and judgements of the ICJ and the ECHR and talks about the Armenians as rats and devils,” she said, highlighting President Ilham Aliyev’s statements claiming Armenia is historic Azerbaijani land.
Babaian noted that the ICC’s recent arrest warrant ordered against Myanmar’s president for persecution of the Rohingya minority who were forced into Bangladesh, is analogous to the forced exodus of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Babaian argued that a resumption of hostilities by Aliyev is “distinctly foreseeable,” and urged the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan to open an investigation to deter him “from continuing [his] Armenophobic policies through war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
In April, CFTJ asked the ICC to investigate Azerbaijani officials for genocide, marking the first such petition to the Hague tribunal since Armenia joined the court earlier this year. As a member state, Armenia is able to formally initiate a case for the ICC to investigate, but it has yet to do so.
This may be related to Armenia’s ongoing attempts to negotiate a normalization deal with Azerbaijan, which Baku has continuously thwarted.
Last month, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan suggested that both countries might withdraw their current claims against each other from international courts if a deal is signed, which Azerbaijani officials had previously named as a precondition for an agreement.
Commenting on CFTJ’s address to the ICC, Arsineh Arakel, Esq. called it “a historic moment for CFTJ, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the victims of the war crimes perpetrated by autocratic Azerbaijan.”
“It sends a strong message that the truth will not be hidden, that justice must be served and impunity will end,” she noted.
CFTJ is also holding a side event at the ICC’s annual Assembly of State Parties on Friday, entitled “Holding Azerbaijan Accountable: The role of the ICC for Ethnic Armenians.” The panel is co-hosted with Democracy Development Foundation and the International Partnership of Human Rights.
